In this scenario, yes, my view of my favorite company would change. I would be hesitant to apply for a company where I feared I would not be accepted or treated with respect. Company culture is a huge factor in the decision to work for an organization. Job satisfaction is, in part, dependent on an individual’s feeling of community and belonging to where they work. I want to work for a company in which I have things in common with coworkers and feel comfortable being myself. Yes, your work is a professional setting, but it is also a place where you will form relationships and spend a huge part of your life. I could not imagine wanting to join an organization where I felt I was part of a group being discriminated against.
A single, small-scale, lawsuit would likely not drastically alter my view of an organization, but a wide-spread claim might. If the claim seemed credible and legitimate, I would be unlikely to apply for a position. It’s also worth mentioning, however, that in the United States, we have a culture that highly supports and encourages lawsuits and pursuing financial compensation for perceived wrongdoings. Americans are hyper-sensitive in today’s world, and many claims brought about are bogus. In my personal life, I try to take the news with a grain of salt, because many news stories are factually misleading or just untrue. Like I said earlier though, it would be hard not to take allegations to heart if they related to a group you strongly identified with.
3 replies on “Week 2: Experiences with Discrimination”
You bring up the fact that the United States is very litigious as compared to other locales, which I hadn’t spent much time thinking about in response to this prompt. This idea to take the news with a grain of salt echos my feelings, as well. While we are used to reading headlines all day, it is important to dig down into issues with more rigor in order to get closer to the truth of the matter.
I like your point about the US News system. I definitely take a lot of headlines like these with a grain of salt as well. I would do a lot of research to see if the claim is actually legitimate before I start to boycott my favorite company.
I completely agree with you in that if I found out a company was behaving unethically my opinion of the company would change. I also agree that company culture is extremely important and if a company is discriminating against employees or potential employees, I would feel like it isn’t the best company to work for and I would be hesitant to want to work for that company. I also like that you put in perspective the types of issues you find challenging. I agree that it is not one size fits all and you should consider context and magnitude of the issues the company is facing.